On Tuesday a case was filed in the Texas Southern District Court by Appriohealth, LLC against Invicta Health Solutions, LLC and its principals. The case is regarding violations of trade secret and confidentiality contracts, especially in regards to non-compete and non-solicitation of business.
Appriohealth is a revenue cycle management company that assists commercial healthcare providers with the billing and accounts receivable process. As a part of an expansion plan to offer services to private sector health plans, Appriohealth hired several employees, including Donny Zamora, Jude Cowell, George Shaw, Robert Dart, and Tiffany Echevarria, referred to in the complaint as the Invicta Schemers.
As a part of their employment agreements, the complaint explained, the parties signed contracts that included confidentiality, trade secret, non-complete, and non-solicitation clauses. The new division purportedly did not perform well and the parties were eventually terminated. However, the same parties also approached Appriohealth for purchase of the division.
Negotiations were unsuccessful, the complaint said, but during their employment and the negotiation process, the parties became privy to internal information including compensation documents, future contracts and client information, and other business line information. Appriohealth accuses the parties of then creating a company in direct competition with Appriohealth and with clients obtained with the internal information.
The plaintiff is suing for tortious interference with prospective contractual relationships, tortious interference with existing contracts, and violation of the Texas Uniform Trade Secrets Act. The plaintiff is represented by Holland & Knight.
